I caught him.
Barely.
Six-and-a-half feet of muscled, furry beastman crashed into me, and we both went down in a tangle of limbs. His weight drove the air from my lungs, and for one panicked second I thought he'd crushed me. Then my medical training kicked in, overriding the screaming voice in my head that insisted none of this was real.
"Okay, okay," I gasped, shoving at his shoulder to roll him onto his back. "Not dying today. Neither of us is dying today."
His silver eyes were half-closed, unfocused. Blood...too much blood, soaked through the white fur on his left side. The wound was deep, a ragged gash that looked like something with very large claws had tried to gut him.
My hands moved on autopilot, checking his pulse. Strong but fast. Breathing shallow. Probable internal bleeding. Without proper equipment, without even basic supplies...
The golden interface pulsed urgently in my vision:
[CRITICAL: Bond Candidate Dying]
[Frost – Snow Leopard Tribe]
[Compatibility: 89%]
[Form emergency bond to unlock Healing Sense ability?]
[WARNING: Bond is permanent and cannot be undone even after death]
[Y/N]
"Permanent bond? After death?" I stared at the screen, my blood-slicked hands trembling. "What does that even mean? What am I agreeing to?"
The beastman: Frost, apparently, made a wet rattling sound that might have been a laugh. His eyes opened fully, fixing on me with startling clarity despite his condition.
"It means," he rasped, "you'll be... stuck with me. Forever." Each word seemed to cost him. "Bonded pairs... can feel each other. Emotions. Pain. Can't... truly be separated."
"That's insane."
"That's... Beastworld." His hand, tipped with retractable claws, reached up slowly. Not threatening. Almost gentle. "You don't... have to. Let me die. Safer... for you."
I looked at his hand. At his face. At the blood pooling beneath him.
At the choice that wasn't really a choice at all.
"I didn't let the wolf die," I said quietly. "I'm sure as hell not letting you die."
I pressed Y.
The world exploded.
Energy slammed through me like lightning, like touching a live wire, like every nerve ending firing at once. I gasped, or tried to, but couldn't breathe, couldn't think, couldn't do anything except feel as something fundamental rewrote itself inside my chest.
Heat. Connection. A presence that was distinctly other suddenly blooming in the corner of my consciousness. I could feel him, Frost, his pain like knives in my own side, his exhaustion dragging at my limbs, his surprise and relief and something dangerously close to hope.
And underneath it all, I knew things I hadn't known seconds ago.
How to pack wounds with moss that grew on northern tree trunks. How to identify which roots stopped bleeding. How to build a shelter that would survive the Calamity Storms. The knowledge downloaded directly into my brain, intuitive and complete, like I had always known it.
[BOND ESTABLISHED]
[Frost – Snow Leopard Tribe – Bonded Mate #1]
[Ability Unlocked: Healing Sense – Level 1]
[Ability Unlocked: Enhanced Night Vision]
[Ability Unlocked: Cold Resistance]
[Ability Unlocked: Basic Shelter Construction]
"Holy shit" I whispered.
Frost's hand found mine, his clawed fingers surprisingly gentle. "You actually... did it." His voice was stronger now, though still pained. "You bonded with me. Why?"
"Because you're bleeding out, you idiot." I was already moving, guided by instincts that weren't entirely my own. The moss, yes, there, the blue-gray moss with red veins. I tore it from the nearest tree trunk and pressed it against his wound.
The moment my hands touched his injury, the Healing Sense activated.
I felt it. Not just saw, felt. Every torn blood vessel, every damaged muscle fibre, every place where his body was struggling to knit itself back together. It was like having x-ray vision combined with empathy combined with something I had no words for. I could sense where healing needed to happen, could almost see the pathways my hands needed to follow.
"This is insane," I muttered, but my hands kept working. Pressure here. Moss packed there. My fingers found meridian points I shouldn't have known existed, and when I pressed them, Frost's bleeding slowed.
"That's... not normal." Frost stared at me with something like awe. "Even bonded mates don't... You can feel my injuries?"
"Every single one. And you have a lot of them." I met his silver eyes. "What happened to you?"
His expression shuttered. "I Challenged the wrong beastman and Lost. Barely escaped with my life."
"Over what? Territory?"
"Over refusing to participate in a claiming raid." His voice went flat, emotionless. "My tribe wanted to attack a weaker tribe, take their unmated females by force. I said no. The alpha didn't appreciate my dissent."
My hands stilled. "You were exiled for... having basic decency?"
"Decency.... is weakness here." He said it like he'd heard it a thousand times. "The strong take what they want. The weak submit or die. That's the only law that matters in Beastworld."
"That's barbaric."
"That's survival." But there was something in his voice, a crack in the certainty. "Or it was, until you appeared."
A branch snapped in the forest behind us.
We both froze.
"They followed you" I whispered. It wasn't a question.
Frost tried to sit up and failed, his face contorting with pain. "My tribe doesn't... forgive deserters. And now that you've bonded with me..." He looked at me with something that might have been regret or guilt. "You've made yourself their enemy too."
"Fantastic. Love that for me."
"You need to run." His hand gripped mine with an un-surprising strength. "Break the bond. It will let you, if the bond is new enough—"
"I'm not breaking anything." I kept working on his wounds, even as my heart hammered against my ribs. "And I'm definitely not leaving you here to die."
"Human Female...."
"Kira, My name is Kira" I said, hoping to not be referred to as something as plain as 'human female'
"Kira..." The sound of my name in his rough voice sent an unexpected shiver through me. "You don't understand. They'll kill you. Or worse, they'll force bonds, claim you for the tribe. You'll lose everything that makes you you."
More sounds in the forest. Closer now. Definitely plural. Definitely surrounding us.
The interface flickered:
[WARNING: 7 Hostile Entities Detected]
[Snow Leopard Tribe Hunting Party]
[Recommendation: Flee immediately]
"I spent three years saving animals everyone else said weren't worth the effort." My voice came out steadier than I felt. "I died trying to protect a wolf. You really think I'm going to abandon you now?"
Frost stared at me like I was insane. He was probably right.
"Besides," I added, forcing a grin I didn't feel, "you said the bond is permanent. Guess you're stuck with me too."
A low growl echoed from the shadows. Then another. Then five more, surrounding us in a circle of gleaming eyes and bared fangs.